Desnee Flakes's Blog

I am a recently employed activist who has been writing all my life about the issues that mean the most to me. My interests lie in politics, parity, race, and history. I believe that each of those things are interconnected and that only when we look straight at something do we actually see it. My politics are left of center, and I don't rely on any movement to define where my center is. My father taught us to measure others with the same yardstick you measure yourself.

I don’t like White
people. It came to me as I was watching The Secret Life of Bees.
Everyone will walk away from the book or movie feeling something
different but, what I walked away with was Black people have
nurtured White people and placed ourselves in harm’s way for
them… Read full post »

What kind of journalism is it when a third party named
Joe Oliver is interviewed about an incident which he was not
present for? Chris Matthews announced that he had a guest on
Hardball that would shed ligh… Read full post »

I have not been able to bring myself to read the multiple
stories here concerning Trayvon Martin for one reason Chace Coe.
Chace was my son and he was shot in the back of his head with an
AK-47 one night in February 1993. I had just returned back… Read full post »

There are whispers across different media that fracking may be
linked to earthquakes. This is disturbing news in the least; and at
best it should focus attention on alternative energy sources, which
may not have been fully vetted in terms of safety concerns. In the
alte… Read full post »

I have to admit that I look for Black female writers here at
Open Salon hoping to find Katori Hall, and more times than not, I'm
left wanting. Katori Hall is a young Black female playwright, who
has not only found her voice, but found an audience for it… Read full post »

Marcy
Kaptur has won the Democratic nomination in her contest against
Dennis Kucinich; and we have lost our voice, our conscience, and
our champion. How did Cleveland let this happen? What was the magic
pixie dust she had to sprinkle across the airwaves, which could
make these pe… Read full post »

When I was 16 years old my life was a very different one from
the one I live today and the reason was Howard Scott, the lead
guitar player for WAR. While most of my peers were preparing for
their real lives, I was living my… Read full post »

"I'm waiting for my first thunderstorm. I don't know how I'm
going to react, and I'm afraid it won't be good!" That is what the
young soldier sitting in front of me on the train was telling his
companions, as we moved away from the Farragut North stop… Read full post »

Well another year of pagentry has come and gone and one thing
that the Academy remains faithful to is their committment to honor
the Black maid. Can you imagine if half of all the awards that
White women earned were for their role as burger flipper? I'm
pretty sure you… Read full post »

How I
got to the racetrack probably isn't important, at least not as
important as the fact that I spent roughly the next thirty or so
years trying to rid myself of the itch. And any race tracker will
tell you it is an itch; an addiction,… Read full post »

Sitting in my living room in the middle of an ice storm, I
became consumed by isolation. The kind of isolation only nature can
impose, when our customary creature comforts are severed. No phone,
no electricity, no heat or television. Only a flicker of light from
a single candle and the… Read full post »

Thank you Franklin Graham, your appearance yesterday spurred me
to do some research on the Evangelical movement. The language you
and the Republican candidates use is so similar I had to find
where, who, and how this party h… Read full post »

If I hear another commentator discuss Santorum's
religious views I'm going to lose both my religion and my lunch. In
2006 Santorum lost his Senate seat by 18 points. According to G.
Terry Madonna, a public policy professor at Franklin & Marshall
College in Lancaster it was the largest loss… Read full post »

MSNBC announced today that Pat
Buchanan will no longer be working with the network. After 10 years
of Pat Buchanan flagrantly using White racism to forward his policy
ideas and that of his party, he has finally been told your message
no longer fits with this network. But let’s look at… Read full post »

Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, and Mitt Romney are fighting
yesterday's battle, because President Obama has found a compromise,
that has satisfied some of his toughest critics regarding who will
pay for contraceptive services.

But this fight has never been about contraception or religion
for the… Read full post »

When I posted part I of this saga yesterday it was with a hope
that people of good will would step forward and begin a dialogue
about the inherent pain that comes with such virulent racism. I was
not surprised when it didn't happen. But I have to say the
irony… Read full post »

A couple of days ago my friend Wayne Glapion had posted a very
disturbing picture on
his Facebook page. The picture was of the President with hunting
season below his image. It was drawn by a child and was being
displayed in the 8th grade hall at Boyet Jr. High, in Slidell,
Louisiana.… Read full post »

Reading through my Facebook feed over
the last couple of days, a story that I am viewing with much
interest is the case of Republican, Indiana Secretary of State,
Charlie White. White was convicted on 6 counts of voter fraud and
his Governor, Mitch Daniels is waiting for a judge to… Read full post »

I just read a great post titled
February Is For White Folks Too. This made me think about how open
is Open Salon to that idea. So I looked at the home page to see if
the editors found some literary gems written by Black people for
this month. And I… Read full post »

In August of 2003, I had the pleasure
of meeting Liliane Casey. Liliane's life is like a highway. It
intersects with history in every direction. Her mother born a
Baroness fled Russia to escape the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. Her
father is the last Black American born jockey to win the

On Oct. 15, 2011 I set off with my friend Takisha Burke for
Washington, DC from Aiken, SC to attend the opening of the Martin
Luther King memorial and to engage the Take Back The Machine
occupation up close and personal. The following day we arrived
fashionably late at the opening… Read full post »

I just got fired from my job as a customer service
representative at a third party provider for a large
telecommunications company. I wish I had known when I applied that
I had just stepped into “The Metrics.” In this world
people who rarely come from the call center floor are… Read full post »